Tigers advance with easy win over Wayne

It’s not often you see a varsity level basketball team score only three points in an entire half.

It happened on Saturday night in the Class AA Region 4 Section 2 basketball tournament at Logan High School’s Willie Akers Arena as Chapmanville Regional breezed to an easy 56-25 victory over the Wayne Pioneers.

Wayne managed just three points in the first half as the Tigers rolled to a 21-3 lead at the break.

It didn’t get much better for the Pioneers in the second half as Chapmanville coasted to the win, advancing to Thursday night’s sectional semifinals against top seed and regular season Cardinal Conference champion Tolsia.

Chapmanville won its fifth straight game and improved to 14-9 on the season with the win. The Tigers are set to play Tolsia at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Logan. The Rebels split with Chapmanville this season and come into the contest with a 14-8 mark.

The other sectional semifinal on Thursday at 8 p.m. pits No. 2 seed Scott (13-9) against No. 3 seed Mingo Central (13-9). The Miners had the best record in games against sectional foes this season at 6-2 compared to Scott (5-3) and Tolsia (5-3) but were voted third by the coaches.

Fourth seed Chapmanville had no problem against Wayne (5-17) in Saturday’s play-in game.

The Pioneers shot a Pluto-cold 8-for-45 from the floor for 17.8 percent. The Tigers were 23-for-53 from the field for 43.4 percent.

Chapmanville outrebounded Wayne 40-25 and got a double-double effort from Mackenzie Martin, who recently became the school’s all-time leading scorer with more than 1,500 career points. Martin finished with 26 points, 14 rebounds and a blocked shot.

It wasn’t a vintage game, but Chapmanville first-year coach Allan Hatcher said he’ll take it. Hatcher’s Tigers are set to take on Tolsia, a team Chapmanville beat 45-43 on Feb. 18 at Glenhayes. Chapmanville lost 52-41 at home to the Rebels on Feb. 8 at the Danny Godby Gymnasium.

“This place is going to be rocking on Thursday night,” Hatcher said.

Chapmanville held Wayne to no points in the second quarter while scoring 13. The Tigers led 8-3 after one quarter, 21-3 at the half and 43-13 after three with a 22-10 edge in the fourth.

Chapmanville coasted in a second half which featured three combined technical fouls, a missed dunk attempt and a lot of Wayne shots that went off the iron.

The stat of the game was still the astounding three-point half by the Pioneers.

“We guarded them,” Hatcher said. “We worked really hard on being ready and being prepared to guard them defensively. I thought that we did a good job. I watched Poca and Wayne the other night go 31-31 at halftime. That’s why we had to be ready to win this game. You have to win your first one to advance. The key word is to advance and to move on to the second round.”

Martin was Chapmanville’s only double figure scorer.

Brady Cox came off the bench to net nine points and grab six rebounds.

Kenny Plumley had eight points, while senior guard Mikie Hurst had five and Trey Dalton had four points and seven assists. Jon Williamson added four points for the Tigers.

Not surprisingly, no Wayne player could reach double figures. The Pioneers were led by Brayden Baker’s nine points.

After a slow start in the first quarter, the Tigers turned it up in the second period.

A pair of Plumley buckets — the last coming on a fast break layup — gave Chapmanville a 16-3 lead. It was 18-3 Tigers with 2:09 to go until halftime after an inside hoop by Martin.

Hurst later drilled a 3-pointer with 53 ticks go to go, giving Chapmanville an 18-point lead at the break.

In the third, Chapmanville more or less put the game away with a 10-0 run as the Tigers led 31-3. Martin finished off the run with a pair of free throws after he was hacked on a dunk attempt.

Wayne finally broke the ice and ended a scoring drought of more than 12 minutes as Baker hit a 3-ball to make it 31-6 with 3:53 left in the period.

Cox later completed an old fashioned three-point play to push the score to 37-8 with 2:18 left.

A couple of Martin free throws then made it 39-8 Chapmanville with 1:55 to go.

The Tigers led 43-13 at the end of three after Martin’s lay-in with seven seconds showing on the clock.

Chapmanville then opened up a 33-point lead in the fourth quarter and ended the Pioneers’ season.